Beach Bound!

Our family is taking our first vacation together in almost 4 years! We, along with Jonathan's parents, are headed to North Myrtle Beach on Saturday for a week filled with fun in the sun! Katy and Parker have never been to the beach, and Lily and Maddy were ages 2 and 1 the last time they were there, so everyone is very excited! I look forward to posting pictures of our trip and catching up with all of you when we return home. Please be praying for our family and that we will have safe traveling and sweet fellowship during our time together. Have a wonderful and blessed week! Love you all!

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. Romans 15:5-7

A Zoo-pendous Time!

On our way home from Sunday night worship service, Katy asked if we could go to the Zoo again soon, so since it's summer (and we get to do whatever we want!) we decided to head out to the Knoxville Zoo Monday morning. We got there right when it opened and the weather was perfect. The kids were excited!After taking a peek at the bears, we went to the girls' favorite spot, the Butterfly Garden. Lily especially loves it because of the pond and all the lily pads! We have been to the zoo several times, but this was the first time Parker was able to really enjoy it. Lily loved showing Parker all of the animals and teaching him their names. Here they are looking at the elephants together. One of the elephants actually was playing with a box and got it stuck on his trunk! Parker stood and looked at the zebras for a long time.He had fun pretending to drive his sissies around in the Zoo jeep while making an engine noise! Maddy got trapped in a cage! Parker had on big boy shoes for the first time and he was so happy walking around showing off his new Nikes! It was starting to get hot, and after walking around the zoo for several hours, we cooled off with some Slush Puppies! Lily and Katy shared a Bodacious Berry slush and couldn't stop laughing about their blue mustaches! Maddy was so sweet sharing a Lemon Limecicle slush with Parker. Then we headed into the air conditioned Wee Play Zoo for some more fun! Katy had fun pretending to be a zoo attendant. Here's Farmer Maddy pushing her wheelbarrow.Parker was fascinated with the live bunny and he loved petting it!And he enjoyed cruisin' in the jeep.Before we knew it we had spent almost 5 hours at the Zoo! We had a zoo-pendous time and look forward to going again soon! Thank you Lord for another beautiful day and allowing us time together admiring your creation!

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. 1 Chronicles 29:11

Fountains of Fun!

I can't begin to tell you how much we are enjoying summer! I love having all my kiddos together and not being on schedules! We are having lots of fun deciding day to day what we can get into! We have been visiting Powell Station Park once a week for some water and playground fun. The girls enjoy the fountainswhile Parker has fun walking around exploringand making music under the playsetOur friends, the Houks, met us there last week and Lily and Maddy had fun with Madeline drawing with sidewalk chalk. There are 7 kids between our 2 families and we enjoyed a fun picnic on the grass: Little Layla loved seeing Parker and kept trying to give him kisses!It has been so nice to have my sweet Lily home after being gone at Kindergarten during the day last year. She has been such a big help to me and is a great big sister (& little mommy) to Parker:

Thank you Lord for summertime and sweet fellowship with my children!

Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come. Worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. Revelation 14:7

My Little Fish

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been spending lots of time at our neighborhood pool. It took me awhile to get up the courage to take my four little ones to the "big" pool by myself, but I'm so glad I did because it has become one of our favorite things to do together! The kids are begging to go swim "down the street" every day! Katy especially is enjoying the pool and since it's been awhile since I have done a post just focusing on my Katybugs, I thought I would share how much she loves the water! Katy has become a little fish. She has absolutely no fear of the water and after several attempts to get her to wear swimmies on her arms (with no success!), I got her a Speedo life vest in her favorite color blue. She is so very proud of it!I love it because it keeps her arms free to practice swimming and it's just enough to keep her above water so she really has to work! She loves to run and jump in and has taught herself to "back float." She also loves to throw toys in and jump in after them. It's hard to believe she just turned 2 1/2! I love watching my little fish in the water and can't wait to get her into swim lessons this winter when she turns 3!

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Psalm 42:1-2

Parker is One-derful!

Parker had two big Doctor visits the last two days and I wanted to give everyone an update on my sweet one year old! Wednesday, July 8th we visited the ENT, Dr. Little, at Children's. Parker has had numerous ear infections and has resisted all antibiotics that have been given to him the last few times, so we wanted to see if he would qualify for tubes. Parker had some testing done to check his hearing and for fluid in his ears. He tested normal for hearing in 4 out of 5 areas, but fell below average when it came to the low tones. He also has fluid in his right ear still. Dr. Little said that Parker is definitely a good candidate for tubes, so his surgery is set for August 18th. I was hoping we would get it done sooner, but that is the earliest date they had. We are on a cancellation list, so please pray that something will open up before then.

Today we saw Dr. Feld for his one year well visit. Here are his stats:

Weight: 24 lb. 12 oz. (75%)

Height: 31 in. (85%)

Dr. Feld said that except for his ears Parker looked one-derful! He put him on another antibiotic for 10 more days to hopefully clear up the fluid in his ear. He said that the tubes will cause a dramatic change in him (especially his speech) and described Parker's hearing as if he were holding a seashell up to his ear. That just broke my heart! He has been hearing things "through a seashell" for almost 3 months straight! I don't think my sweet baby knows what it feels like to hear normally! But, we are so very thankful that he is otherwise very healthy! That is a huge blessing and we give all the glory to God!

For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name. 1Chronicles16:25,29

Our Little Firecracker Turns One!

We celebrated Parker's first birthday on Saturday with a Fourth of July cookout at our house with family and friends. Parker had been sick all week, but was thankfully feeling better by his birthday! He loved the balloons and walking around visiting with everybody!We ate lots of yummy food--hot dogs (grilled by Parker's Grandpa!), potato salad, pork and beans, and chips. Everyone was so full that we decided to open presents before eating cake. Jonathan helped Parker open his presents and he got lots of fun gifts! He got a set of sports balls and he was in heaven!Aunt Kandy and Uncle T gave him his very 1st soccer ballHe loved pulling out all of the tissue paper from the gift bagsEarlier our friends the Hodsons and the Dunlaps stopped by to wish Parker a Happy Birthday. Allyson had a cute backpack monogrammed just for him!and Anna and Rebekah gave Parker his 1st choo-choo train!After all the presents, it was time for cake! Sarah August made Parker his very 1st Birthday cake! I was thrilled with how it turned out! Sarah put his smash cake on top, so when it was time to sing, we removed it and filled it with candles. Parker was very fascinated by the flames on the candles, especially the tall blue ones that sparkled like fireworks! (Thanks Amy C. for the idea!)
Jonathan had to hold Parker's arm down so he wouldn't grab the candles and get burned by the flames! Parker was determined to get a hold of the "1" candle with his other handand finally was able to grab it after his big sissies helped him blow out the candlesParker wasn't very interested in his cake, which wasn't too surprising because he has issues with texture. He poked at it a bit and tried some yummy red frosting Then he poked at it some more Jonathan tried to help him dig inbut he just didn't want any! He didn't know what he was missing! To finish off our celebration we went outside to watch our neighbors set off fireworks. Parker had fun with his first glow stick! He watched the fireworks with his Daddy and we all cheered when we saw a special red, white, and blue set of fireworks for our patriotic baby!

Then Parker's Birthday continued the next day... We had decided to keep his little cake and so glad we did, because he loved it after it had gotten nice and cold in the refrigerator! He had fun with his fork and was so proud of himselfThen he let us know he was done! What a mess!

We enjoyed celebrating Parker's 1st Birthday and are so blessed to have him as part of our family! We love you, Parker Levi and wish for you many more happy birthdays!

I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you... 3John1:2